The Magical Herd

In the shadows lurk things which should never see the light of day.

Dark things, frightening things...sometimes evil things.

As you lay curled up encroaching gloom a couple of strange critters skittered by. What looked like a green rat and a...blue insect-thingie. Or was it an enormous spider? You shudder at the thought, happy it was gone.

Soon there was a hair-raising yowl. A feline slipped from the ever-enveloping gloom. It appeared to be on the trail of the rat, though it was not much bigger than the rodent itself. As it disappeared you wondered what the outcome would be. Would the hunter become the prey, and the prey the victor? You hoped that cat didn't catch up to the rat anywhere nearby.

But now night had a firm grip upon the forest, squeezing the breath out of those laying in wait of those that would devour them. One such hunter now awakened, the hunter that hunts the predators, who is never prey, who is not slave to the night.

Fuego had been right to fear this one. As she stepped into the darkness that belonged to her, and her alone, blood dripping from sharpened fangs, the forest grew silent, pulled back to hide.

The other leagi did not speak of this one. An aberrant creature, living off the blood of the living, even the blood of her own kind. They feared her, yet continued to deny she existed, that she was one of them. They knew better than to come to this part of the forest. Only Fuego raised the challenge, confronted the blazing eyes, and lost. Fuego was to never make that mistake again.

Sharnak was almighty here.

She moved without a sound, yellow eyes glowing fiercely in the night. She neared the hiding place of the human traveller. She could scent its fear, sense its terror. Good. At least it knew its place.

But she wasn't hungry, blood already dripped thickly from her fangs, another unfortunate victim. Mere chance dictating that she had found it before she found you.

Some may wonder why SunBlind would allow such a being to threaten the safety of those who wander here. But the Realm was not safe, the vampiric dragon had never claimed it would be. And so she allowed those of kindred spirit, those with a thirst for blood to feed upon the very ones she had created the Realm to protect.

Including you.